Gita 02.02 Fight against lower emotions by fighting for higher emotions

Bhagavad Gita 2.2 Shri Bhagavan Vacham Klaibyam Maas Magam Mahapartham Naitatvayupapadyate Shudram Hrudaya Daurbalyam Tyaktvo Tishta Parantapa So this is the first full verse spoken by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and there he says Klaibyam is impotence Maas Magam Mahapartham don't don't give in to such impotence Naitatvayupapadyate this doesn't behove you you are a powerful warrior Shudram Hrudaya Daurbalyam this is weakness of the heart which is typical of a low minded person of a low class person of a small minded person Tyaktvo Tishta Parantapa give it up and arise Tyaktvo Parantapa you are the conqueror of the enemies so Krishna is here responding in quite strong terms to Arjuna's reluctance to fight and he is using the word Klaibyam and Shudra to refer to Arjuna's behavior and thus he says Arjuna do not give in to such degrading impotence Klaibyam Maas Magha Maham it's interesting we might say that usually you would say that don't give in or give up to your enemy even when the enemy is more powerful than you don't give in to it so what does it would we say don't give in to importance so our enemies can come in many different forms and often personifying our emotions can help us to better contextualize them and then respond healthily to them that is when we look at our emotions as not just forces that arise within us and then we identify with them and get carried away by them but we think of them as tangible persons who are acting sometimes in accordance with our wishes sometimes in opposition to our wishes our deepest wishes our aspirations our core intentions our values so that gives us a better framework to evaluate those emotions so we may say don't give in to hopelessness that means that's just another way of saying maintain hope so if an enemy is fighting enemy appears to be winning but still there is a chance to fight back then we may say don't give in to hopelessness at this stage so similarly don't give in to hopelessness don't give in to weakness it doesn't behoove you heroes have reputations and reputations are usually the achieved by extraordinary stellar actions and to the extent these actions are in harmony with who we are and what we are meant to do to that extent we will grow in our life and to the extent our actions are in disharmony to that extent we will become weak and our actions are often prompted by our emotions so anybody who has done something noteworthy in their life has had times when their emotions worked against them and still they persevered and that's how they came to the point of absorption whereby they could move forwards and attain something higher attain something more rise to a higher level and eventually become noteworthy make a noteworthy contribution that led to a reputation so similarly arjuna has been told here by krishna that oh krishna you you have in the past avoided negativity you have avoided weakness of heart that's how by persevering in your archery practice in your archery fighting in your heroism as a warrior that is how you are known as the celebrated holder of the gandhi bhavo that's how you are known as arjuna as parantapa one who chastises the enemies so now you arjuna you have reputation why are you dissipating your reputation for the sake of some trivial emotion so when we feel any particular emotion that is contrary to our values and purposes at that time it is good to see that emotion as a opposing force that is trying to overwhelm us and then we can stand up to the opposing emotion by standing firm in our determination to do something worthwhile to fight against an emotion we need to fight for a higher emotion that means let's say somebody is a sports player is about to play a very important sports match at that time that player starts becoming nervous starts choking now to fight against that emotion the player has to fight for some bigger emotion that means the player has to fight for understanding for standing up to their standing for I'm playing for my national team I'm playing to fulfill the dreams since my childhood of myself of my loved ones of my coach I'm standing up to following the footsteps of the great sporting icons of my country so if we focus on that higher emotion then we can fight against the lower emotion when Shatrughna felt infuriated with Mantra for having poisoned the ears of Kaikeyi and he wanted to punish her Bharath told him that Ram will be displeased if he punish her and therefore we should not so Bharath too was angry with Mantra but he did not punish her because he fought against the emotion of anger by fighting for the emotion of fighting for his love for Ram his desire to please Ram in our spiritual life also we can fight against our anger towards those who have wronged us by fighting for our love for Krishna and similarly Arjuna is told over here fight against the lower emotion of weakness of fear of attachment of small mindedness of cowardliness whatever be the specific emotion that Arjuna is experiencing Krishna is not going into a detailed analysis of Arjuna's emotional state Krishna is giving a exhortative call here by saying fight for your reputation not just fight for your reputation fight for the heroic qualities heroic virtues that have given you your reputation thus by striving to identify a higher emotion that we wish to live for then we can when we identify a lower emotion that drags us away from a principle life then we can fight against a lower emotion by fighting for a higher emotion thank you.